James Georgalakis on provocative questions, how to frame research evidence for different audiences, and key messages on improving women's life choices drawn from ESRC-DFID research.
News and Views
Posted: 15th March
A key aspect of the Impact Initiative’s work is to ensure that research reaches the right people to help inform decision making. In a strand of our work that we call “legacy services”, we identify outputs - including reports, papers and briefings - and publish them in an open access repository. Kelly Shephard (IDS) explains the benefits of storing documents in an open access repository.
Posted: 8th March
A three-year project, enabled by ESRC-DFID, has been exploring how people with disabilities fare in the face of international development efforts. Key findings from the research will be presented at a two-day conference in London from 12 to 13th March. Grant holders, Professor Nora Groce and Dr Maria Kett blog about their hopes that this event will identify key entry points for governments, donors, policymakers and other stakeholder to reduce the risk of a widening gap between disabled and non-disabled people.
Posted: 8th March
Traditional and cultural expectations, low economic status or lack of access to healthcare and education are persistent and major barriers for women and girls. These barriers remind us that we need to change the structures and policies that continue to hold women back. With this as the backdrop, the Impact Initiative is launching its campaign #Policies4 Improving Life Choices for Women, proposing policy ideas and innovations that could empower women. The campaign will highlight the evidence and research funded by the UK’s Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the Department for International Development (DFID) Joint Fund for Poverty Alleviation Research and the Raising Learning Outcomes in Education Systems Research Programme that should inform decision making and interventions.
Posted: 6th February
DFID’s new education policy ‘Get children learning’ has called for a united effort by global and national leaders to address the learning crisis and ensure poor and marginalised children - who face the greatest challenges - are not left behind.
Posted: 24th January
Kelly Shephard, Head of Knowledge, Impact and Policy at IDS, presents a new series of impact stories, produced by the ESRC-DFID Impact Initiative, which examine a range of challenges that occurred during the research process, the different approaches taken, and how barriers in achieving impact were overcome. Ultimately, the stories demonstrate how research funded through the ESRC-DFID Strategic Partnership is improving the lives of people around the world in positive ways.
Posted: 22nd January
The SDGs have increased the focus on including people with disabilities in development reforms. However, as the World Disability Report (2011) highlights, one of the biggest challenges for decision-makers aiming to improve access and learning for children with disabilities is the lack of reliable data and evidence to shape effective policies and programmes. In order to understand how individuals working in international non-governmental organisations (INGOs) and other policy organisations engage with evidence on disability and education the Impact Initiative identified and scoped the work of 19 key organisations working in this area
Posted: 10th January
At the Putting Children First Conference in Ethiopia in October 2017, the grant holders funded by the ESRC-DFID Strategic Partnership conducted interviews with policymakers and pra
Posted: 10th January
Who are the policymakers and how do they use research evidence? James Georgalakis, Director of the ESRC-DFID Impact Initiative, explores this question and highlights a recent initiative activity in which a range of senior development professionals, working in global organisations, were interviewed by ESRC-DFID grant holders in order to find out more about evidence use behaviours amongst those working to reduce global child poverty and inequality.
Posted: 5th December
Research funded by the ESRC-DFID Joint Fund for Poverty Alleviation brings to the fore vital evidence for governments and civil society to use to inform future plans and processes in strengthening health systems, understanding the complex power dynamics that prevent people from accessing healthcare and tackling inequity of access.